The rock band Radiohead has announced that their latest album will be sold for whatever price you want. I tried to get to their web site for more details, but it appears to be down, probably overloaded by everyone trying to find out the details.
After fulfilling their previous contract with EMI, they decided to take their latest offerings online, available for digital download, at whatever price YOU find reasonable. This is definitely an interesting model, one I’m sure most of the record companies are upset with, but great for fans.
How can this remotely relate to real estate? We’ve seen the rise of several online discount brokers over the last couple of years, but in my informal polling amongst friends and family, many people still haven’t heard of the Redfin’s of the world. By Radiohead taking the concept of pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth to the music industry, it is sure to continue to make headlines for some time, making the idea potentially more acceptable across a variety of industries.
Some people may already thing, “What does a band like Radiohead really ‘do’ to earn money for a CD?” Sure, they probably really enjoy what they’re doing, then they take it into a studio (which they have to pay to use), lay down some tracks (paying for a master), spend some time (or hire someone) to engineer the tracks, but then they just upload it for you to download (at an immense bandwidth cost).
Could we possibly see a pay per “feature” model come into the real estate world? Radiohead makes a CD which they sell for whatever you think is right. But they also have concerts available, t-shirts, bumper stickers, books, etc. All incremental sales items. Could I pay a Realtor for different services like MLS listing, open houses, flyers, postcards, etc? So if I know my house is hot, could I pay a rock-bottom price to have them put it in my MLS and prepare documents then be done with them?
I doubt we’ll see Radiohead get into real estate (or even their business model make its way here), but it is an interesting idea.
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Glenn, if you have a moment, would you mind telling me and the readers here why/how you’re not a discounter? When I go out to http://www.redfin.com, it prominently displays “Save $10,000″.
At Inman Connect, I was very impressed by your conversation with Lennox Scott and how well you explained your move to encourage home tours. It really showed that you really are looking out for the interests of the consumers who use your site despite the associated profit.
Having purchased my first home a year and a half ago, I feel that your service is definitely an intriguing one and has spurred quite a few local Realtors to increase their technology offerings.
Finally, thank you for being the first CEO of a prominent member of the online real estate community to post a comment on my site.
What a great post. We’re not a discounter, we’re an online brokerage but anyone who compares Redfin to Radiohead is a genius.
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